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Messages - jscottCCFD

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 5
« on: September 21, 2020, 01:22:21 PM »
Quote from: matthew.walker on September 19, 2020, 04:34:09 PM
A time that I found myself “playing in the top left box” was when I caught a structure fire in what was thought to be a single family residence, but had actually been turned into a duplex. At the time, I was working for the City of Franklin Fire Department and was riding backstep on E-17. Upon arrival, there was a working structure fire with heavy smoke showing from the Charlie side. My first instinct was to pull the line to the front door as the officer did his 360. I didn’t even consider the possibility that the interior of the home had been modified and turned into a duplex, additionally not considering how this home may be broken up. After the officer’s 360 was complete and a brief conversation with the home-owner, we realized that this home was now a duplex and that the only access to the unit that was on fire was from the Charlie side. The line was then redeployed to the Charlie side and the fire was put out. The repositioning of the line took some time and I realized that there were several things I could have done to prevent the delay. The address had a half in its numerics, such as 105 ˝ South Main Street. This should have made me consider the possibility of this residence being modified and think before I automatically pulled the hoseline to the Alpha side when smoke was showing from the Charlie. Other than being more aware of the numerics from the address, I learned that I could have slowed down and recognized additional signs that this residence had been modified, such as multiple A/C units, multiple electrical meters, address indicators and multiple mailboxes. This incident also taught me to slow down and not get sucked into doing the same thing on every fire (automatically pulling a line to the alpha side), because each fire is different and requires different tactics. Knowing your district is also a very important lesson learned in this instance. Had I been out more and studied my district, I may have known that several homes on this particular street had been modified into multi-family units. Overall, my biggest take away is to slow down in order to prevent the tunnel vision effect and know your surroundings, whether that is the scene that you are currently operating in or preplanning and knowing your district.
This has been a learning curve for anyone that each structure fire will be unique in the buildings, strategies, and tactics needed to safely and efficiently put the fire out.  There is no more going to the Alpha side front door every time.  And as Frank Brannigan says, "the building is the enemy; know the enemy."

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 5
« on: September 21, 2020, 01:11:18 PM »
Quote from: michael.toothman on September 15, 2020, 12:11:17 PM
My "top left box" moment was shorty after we got the new King View scopes. We had a non-breather during office hours and Capt. Buehler came on the call. He was helping work the Pt and was working on the airway. He asked for the King View, and was given it with the blade attached and tube placed. The problem was the scope's battery was dead. I know for a fact that it worked that morning because I checked it. The battery read 221 minutes of power on the screen, I powered it off and placed it back in the box. What I did not know was that the small button that is pressed to power up the scope is sometimes pressed by accident when you put it back in the box. So after morning checks it sat on, in the box, until it was needed. How did we handle the situation ? We tubed the Pt with a Miller blade.
What did I learn? Always have a back up plane. And now, when I check the king View scope I look twice just to make sure.
I agree Mike.  Even a good plan needs a plan B.  The ability to remain calm and formulate Plan B on the fly is important in emergency services.

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 5
« on: September 14, 2020, 12:28:04 PM »
A time playing in the top left box...Once my crew and I were dispatched for a public assistance call (clogged kitchen drain) and later upgraded to breathing problems.  When we arrived on the scene the homeowner stated that he ventilated the area already. Immediately we noticed a strong, strange odor.  After determining that we probably should not breathe that stuff we retreated to put on an SCBA.  It later turned out that the homeowner was dealing with a clogged drain and had poured a cocktail of Draino and Bleach down the sink.  This combination created a toxic atmosphere of vapors that would have damaged our airways.  In this scenario, the take home message for me was to always trust your gut and always have a Plan B. 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 4
« on: June 07, 2019, 03:32:25 PM »
I do not agree with this article since it seems to be a bit radical.  The author seems to take a bit of a drastic approach in his opinion on fire attack or interior entry ONLY for obvious rescues. But, one cannot disagree that the fires that we encounter today are drastically different.  Furthermore the building construction, fire behavior, and environments we encounter today cannot be safely battled with antiquated strategies and tactics.
 
Science has proven that transitional fire attacks can have a profound impact on the overall safety of suppression efforts.  Simply, put water on the fire quickly, consistently, and cool the hazard zone in any way possible. The countless studies performed by NIST have debunked many deep seated beliefs that we were taught early in our fire service careers (pushing fire, unburned side attack only, upsetting the thermal balance).  That being said, we still have a responsibility to provide life safety efforts, property conservation, and incident stabilization…to include interior firefighting operations.  We must be realistic in our analyzation of survivability profiles for possible victims entrapped….but remain aggressive in ensuring life safety to our customers.

Our jobs have become increasingly complex and require first arriving officers / incident commanders to quickly and accurately size up the hazard zone and decide the appropriate strategy and tactics for each fire scene.  Additionally, we have come to understand and educated ourselves that the fireground continues to be a hazard zone during suppression, salvage, overhaul, and during the demobilization of crews including decon.  Cancer is a real and present threat to us, and we must be vigilant in taking that threat serious. 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment - 3
« on: December 21, 2018, 05:48:24 AM »
Quote from: Kevin Stevens on December 03, 2018, 02:21:46 PM
Early in my career here we had a Firefighter that wasn't meeting expectations and was close to being let go. My self and another FF took this employee and worked with him every day for a month or more until he was well trained in his job. It wasn't difficult, This person just had no fire experience and needed help with the basic things. He was good in the EMS side of things. So we just started from scratch and worked our way through the packet. It took a little longer than most people but we got it done and he did well from then on except he had this thing we called " Tone Terror", whenever the tones would go off he would almost go into SVT. There was nothing we could do about that. Sometimes it's good for all of us to not overlook the basic things and to refresh our selves on them. I know we will get the stair chair out and work with it from time to time cause if you don't, it can make you look pretty silly on a scene. Just things like that to make life a bit easier.
Kevin Stevens

Kevin, I remember this very well.  This employee did not lack the proper amount of intelligence needed for this job.  But he did lack the proper mental toughness that is appropriate for handling any given emergency that could be encountered while on shift.  The mental foundation/ability to process calls (during the emergency and after) is a given trait that people must possess.  It is hard to train a subordinate on how to operate equipment properly when their brain turns to soggy cereal as soon as the tones drop. 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment - 3
« on: December 21, 2018, 05:32:39 AM »
Quote from: dgerspacher on December 11, 2018, 09:45:47 AM
Several years ago I was responsible for an employee with a horrible attitude. They were competent at their duties but only wanted to do something on their terms. The situation was made more difficult as this person had several past supervisors that did nothing about the problem. Everybody complained about this person but nothing was ever done so this employee felt I was just picking on them and did not like them. It was very frustrating and I admit at times I did not handle the issues properly as they were very good at drawing me into arguing with them. No paper trail existed on this person so I was even questioned by my supervisor if I was treating them unfairly.
This situation was difficult because it involved their attitude (especially towards me) and not performance. Poor performance would have been much easier to address and deal with. It was not easy but I stuck to what I felt was right.
It has been several years since I dealt with this issue and to this day this person still "trashes" me as they truly believe I was unfair to them since it seemed no other supervisor had an issue with them.
What I learned most from this is if a problem employee gets passed from supervisor to supervisor they get harder to fix.

I completely agree with you David.  Sometimes, as supervisors we inherit issues that were poorly managed or not dealt with at all.  This becomes a problem for the supervisor that is attempting to do their job and manage their personnel.  Just because there has been no formal documentation that issues exist, doesn't mean that the issues you encounter as their supervisor aren't credible.  This further proves the importance of not only doing your job as a supervisor, but also the importance of documenting a subordinates behavior both positive and negative. 
 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment - 3
« on: December 18, 2018, 07:05:42 AM »
The Excuse Meister:

We hired a new career FF years ago that came to us from a previous full time position at another area department.  While training and running this new hire through his orientation packet he would make common and expected mistakes of a new hire.  The problem was that every mistake that was made was followed up with a combination of his standard excuses. 1) I did it that way because that's how my old department did it.  2) Flat out denial that a mistake was made. 3) Debating with whomever was training him that the way we were doing things was wrong.  After several conversations with this employee from both peers and supervisors, he was notified that the excuses need to stop and he just needed to own the mistake and learn from it.  After several months of poor performance and consistent excuse making the entire crew sat down together and tried to figure out why this employee had an excuse for every mistake.  We identified two areas that we believe contributed to him making excuses.  This individual was part of the millennial generation and he seemed to feel threatened or made uncomfortable with corrective actions or constructive criticism.  He also seemed embarrassed about making mistakes furthering his need to make excuses.  This employee never changed his excuse making and ended up not making probation. 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 2
« on: October 01, 2018, 06:39:42 AM »
Quote from: nunz on August 30, 2018, 12:17:25 PM
What strategies do you use to manage your time effectively?
Every morning I find what I need to accomplish and prioritize what most important. Then I get with my crew and find out what they need to get done for the day. I like to write everything down in a notebook I carry with me at all times. I can add to or check them off at anytime and don't have to try to remember if there's something I could have done. This also allows me to check my book when we're out to see if there's something we can complete while we're out and not have to make a special trip.

What are some of your biggest obstacles to managing your time effectively?
One of my biggest obstacles is family, if seems like someone always needs something. So I have to stop what I'm doing and help someone else, then get my train of thought back and go back to my original task. Sometimes I find myself stuck on one project and start a new one, before I know it I have several projects started and nothing finished. So then I have to go back and reset my priorities and what needs to be accomplished first.

What can you do to remove some of these obstacles?
I started letting my crew help with things I'm working on. This often counts the time I need to spend on it in half and allows me to work on other things. I not starting other projects while working on something else. I constantly check my book to see where I'm at and what I still need to do.

Nunz, Inovolving the crew in tasks usually helps increase productivity.  Delegating certain tasks to the company level also frees up time for you to complete tasks. 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 2
« on: October 01, 2018, 06:29:38 AM »
Quote from: brian.petry on September 09, 2018, 09:41:05 AM
What strategies do you use to manage your time effectively?
I believe I use the quadrant list to manage my time. I do find myself the older I get placing many more things in the discard quadrant though. I also use the calendar on my phone to manage appointments while not at work, when at work I use Microsoft outlook to schedule appointments and plan my day according to what is already planned to occur here. Not to mention assuring that we have time to accomplish the tasks that need to occur at our station and for the employees at the station.
What are some of your biggest obstacles to you managing your time effectively?
This depends on whether I am at home or work. While at work I think we do a fair job at managing our time here at the station. Of course if it wasn’t for those pesky emergency calls we would be able to schedule down to the minute right? Sometimes the communication of plans changing is an obstacle in managing our time. One of the biggest obstacles for me is to manage the appointments of others and making them mesh with appointments that I have to attend.
What can you do to remove some of these obstacles?
The best way to avoid any obstacle is with open honest communication. For me it will work better if we are speaking of facts only, not trying to make someone feel all warm and fuzzy about why I can’t make an appointment. Also, having timely communications will avoid some obstacles, because we will be ahead of the game assure that our schedules are as up to date as possible.

Brian, I utiilze similar strategies.  One thing I have added is estimating how much time each task will take in order to maximize my time. 

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CCFD Professional Development / Re: Assignment 2
« on: September 10, 2018, 11:08:37 AM »
What strategies do you use to manage your time effectively?
- I utilize a "to do" list on paper every morning that details the items that must be accomplished during the shift.  The list contains items that are already loaded in my outlook calendar.  I utilize my outlook calendar for long range planning, and review the outlook calendar each shift to determine what gets placed on a daily "to do" list.  Then I determine what needs completed based either on priority or deadline demands.  I also ensure to carry over items to the "to do" list that were not completed from the previous shift.   

What are some of your biggest obstacles to managing your time effectively?
- One of the biggest obstacles in managing my time is related to the consistent interruptions while trying to accomplish a certain task.  The interruptions could be for emergency calls or handling a personnel matter like handling priority items such as a call off or on duty injury.  I find that a lot of time is lost trying to get back on track or even remembering to complete a given task after the interruption.  Staying organized and task oriented throughout constant interruptions is challenging. 

What can you do to remove some of these obstacles?
- Removing interruptions is not an option in this line of work.  Our business is rarely pre-planned.  Calls are going to happen and managing personnel and schedules will be unpredictable at times.  What can be done is to set reminders and keep track of where work is left off so that resuming work on a given task is seamless and thus leading to a reduction in time wasted.  Keeping a list of tasks, priorities, and deadlines is key in staying organized in a profession where interruptions are imminent. 

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